Beneath the Matala moon


My recent post about Leonard Cohen vacationing in Greece under the fascist Colonels in the years 1967 to 1974 attracted a large readership. So it is worth recalling that Cohen was not the only musician to visit Greece under military rule. In 1970 Joni Mitchell took a career break and spent time in Greece, Spain (which was still under Franco) and France. Many of the songs on her, arguably, greatest album Blue were written on this trip. The lyrics of the track Carey contain specific references, including the one used in my headline, to the Cretan seaside village of Matala where Joni lived in an alternative community in caves in the summer of 1970. The Greek military regime was notoriously intolerant of alternative lifestyles; but the settlement on Crete's inaccessible southern coast semed to be a case of 'out of sight, out of mind'. By coincidence I visited Matala a few years later in 1975. It was my first visit to Greece, and the country had just returned to being a democracy. It all changed because they were demanding jazz and rock and roll.

Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Comments

Pliable said…
Joni Mitchell trivia.

Carey may have immortalised the village of Matala. But the lyrics reproduced in the album sleeve misspell the village - Matalla

Recent popular posts

David Munrow - more than early music

Classical music must be doing something wrong

Soundtrack for a porn movie

The act of killing from 20,000 feet

Hildegard comes to Norwich via IRCAM and Darmstadt

All aboard the Martinu bandwagon

Classical music's biggest problem is that no one cares

The Berlin Philharmonic's darkest hour

Reginald Goodall – the holy fool

Scott Ross and the paradox of genius